


What About a Gun?

by keepitdreamin



Series: A Sam/Bucky Christmas [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 25 Days of Fic, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:17:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8763865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: Bucky is shopping for a Christmas gift for Sam.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Me writing on a computer: 5 words  
> Me in the notes on my phone at 3 am: 1500 words

“This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me,” Bucky declares when they’ve made it inside the store. Steve snorts and looks up with a pointed raised eyebrow, and Bucky glares at him. “And yes, I mean it _asshole_.”

“You asked for my help,” Steve points out as he stops to browse a selection of scarves. “These are nice.”

Bucky looks at them with distaste. “They’re so thin they’d barely keep you warm and they’d snap if you tried to strangle someone with it. What’s the point?” A woman passing by gives them a strange look, and Bucky narrows his eyes at her still she hurries on.

Steve sighs. “Buck, try not to scare the civilians too much.” Bucky shrugs unapologetically. “So scarves are out then,” Steve muses as he looks around the rest of the area. “What about a watch?”

“What about a gun? They’re so much more practical and would be way more useful on the job.”

“Christmas gifts aren’t about what’s useful and practical Buck,” Steve says with a sigh. Then he pauses and corrects himself, “Well, sometimes they are, but it’s more the thought of 'I knew you would like to have this'. Would Sam like to unwrap a gun on Christmas morning?” He looks expectantly at Bucky.

Bucky thinks it over for a second before saying petulantly, “It would be a really _nice_ gun.”

Steve shakes his head, and Bucky sighs. “ _Fine_. That’s what you’re here for since _obviously_ I don’t know how to Christmas.” He adds in a mutter to himself, “ _Наташа_ хотела бы получить пистолет*.”

“Наташа имеет достаточное количество орудий. Она искала хороших ножей метания хотя,**” Steve says without looking up. Then he smiles at Bucky and taps his ears. “Super soldier hearing remember?”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “I liked you better when you were half deaf.”

“I would’ve read your lips,” Steve says serenely and holds up a pair of gloves consideringly.

“Not those,” Bucky says automatically. “He _hates_ tan clothes.”

Steve nods and loos up at him with a smile, “See you’re better at this than you thought.”

Bucky rolls his eyes and scans the shelves around them. Useless, useless, useless junk, that would be forgotten in drawers and on desks the day after Christmas. “What is even the point?” he asks, holding up a ‘novelty tie’ with “Real flashing lights!!”

Steve looks over and grimaces. “I don’t know. Not everything about the future is great.” Bucky raises an eyebrow and Steve huffs. “Yes, I’m aware of what I said. Shut up.”

-

The first store they go to is a bust, as is the second (where Steve catches a shoplifter while Bucky’s trying to decipher the meaning of desk toys) and the third, fourth and fifth. “Well,” Steve says as they walk through the door to the bookstore, “this is the last place I can think of.”

Bucky likes the bookstore better than the others instantly. It has that peculiar new book smell _everywhere_ and floor to ceiling shelves of options. Steve sets out on a methodological search (Bucky knows he’s going to end up in the history section again, absorbed by an obscure tidbit of the past 70 years he had missed), but Bucky prefers to wander. He picks up books with interesting covers or titles every now and then, to read the summary. None of them are really catching his eye. Any book about war is immediately out, all of the crime/mystery ones he picks p seem boring and uninspired. He spent a moment in the ‘adult’ section but left when the random passage he picked referenced a “throbbing love stick.”

Bucky is content to stay there all day but he’s not sure what he’s getting Sam. Eventually, as he’s staring at the wall of movies, a sales person steps up to him. “Can I help you find something, sir?”

Bucky turns to her and considers for a second. “What kind of gift would you give someone who you’re friends with but may be heading to more than that?” he asks.

The woman tilts her head. “A lot of things. I could give some suggestions if I knew a little more about them.”

Bucky considers his list of Sam related facts and says, “He’s in his 30s, he likes to cook but is terrible even when following recipes, he likes romances but doesn’t like people knowing he likes romances, he likes music, and doesn’t like anything war related.” He looks expectantly at her and she tilts her head again, scanning the store.

“Okay, actually I think I know something.” She gestures for Bucky to follow and he does as she winds her wat to a shelf and searches along one of the bottom shelves. “Ah,” she finally says, pulling out a book. “Here we go.” She holds it up to Bucky who takes it curiously.

“ _Noah’s Dove_?”

“It’s a bit obscure,” she explains, standing. “It’s about a folk musician struggling in the 70s New York scene. It’s very interesting and surprisingly accurate. It can be pretty sad at points, but that kind of sad that you’re glad you read it after? And there’s a romance sort of interwoven which I think was wonderfully written so it’s not a ‘romance’ book but it’s still important. And they do end up happy in the end, so it’s not a depressing gift.” She bites her lip and warns, “There are some mentions of soldiers who came back from Vietnam, but that’s just sort of peripheral to the story, and it’s never really _about_ the war.”

Bucky considers the book, flipping through a couple pages. “You like it,” he guesses.

She shrugs with a smile. “I really do. I don’t know why it’s not more popular, it’s so well written and engaging.”

Bucky nods and closes the book. “Thanks.”

She smiles, “Can I help you find anything else? I don’t know how joking you want to get with a gift but we have a lovely selection of dummy cookbooks up front.”

Bucky grins. “Lead the way.”

-

When Bucky opens his gift from Sam (it’s not actually on Christmas morning, but a few days before so the whole team can be there) his eyes light up. “Perfect,” he says admiringly, picking up the most beautiful gun he’s ever seen. It’s perfectly balanced, the sight is clear, and it already feels comfortable in his hand.

He raises an eyebrow at Steve who rolls his eyes and mutters, “Sure, guns are a perfect gift for _you_.”

Sam unwraps _Idiot Proof Recipes: for Adults who are Still Mastering that Microwave_ , and laughs for a few minutes flipping through and readings pieces. “It’s great,” he tells Bucky. “Thanks.”

 

Later, Bucky heads to the roof. Sam is already there, leaning against a low wall there, leaning against a low wall with a glass of eggnog. Bucky comes to sit next to him, and places a box between them.

“You already gave me a present,” Sam says, eyeing the box curiously.

“Sorry, I wasn’t aware there was now a limit on the number of gifts from one person. I’ll take this back.”

Sam laughs and sets his glass down so he can pick up the box. Opening it, his smile goes soft and warm, “Let’s see, my favorite candy. A tie with a bird on it,” he chuckles and nods approvingly. “A superhero coloring book, that should be _loads_ of fun. And…” he picks up the other book curiously. “ _Noah’s Dove_?”

Bucky shrugs. “I think you’ll like it.”

“Thanks,” Sam says, looking Bucky in the eyes. “Really, thank you for the gifts. Speaking of which,” he pulls a box from his inside coat pocket. “Here, this is for you.”

Bucky takes and opens it curiously, but his face quickly turns into a scowl. “A watch.”

Sam laughs, “Yeah, Steve said you would _hate_ that.”

Bucky glares at him, but finds he can’t hold it for more than a few seconds till he’s chuckling too.

They sit in silence for a while, looking out over the city and the lights and sounds, before Sam nudges his shoulder and asks softly, “Bucky, can I give you something else for Christmas?”

Bucky nods and turns his head to look at Sam, and that’s when Sam moves his hand to Bucky’s leg. “This okay?” he asks. Bucky nods, eyes locked on Sam’s.

 

They only head inside when it starts to snow. When they pass Steve in the kitchen, he squints at Bucky for a second then says nonchalantly as he sips his coffee, “You could really use a scarf right about now.”

“I don’t know,” Sam pipes in, dragging Bucky out of the room and waving to Steve, “I like seeing my handiwork.”

Bucky rolls his eyes as Sam leans down to press a kiss to the hickey he’d left on Bucky’s neck. “If you don’t stop trying to neck in the hallway like teenagers and get us to an actual bed in the next 2 minutes, I swear to god, Christmas is cancelled.”

Sam spends one of his two minutes, laughing as Bucky scowls, but they make it in time. “So I guess you could say, I saved Christmas.”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Yeah, okay, _Rudolph_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Translations courtesy of Google translate so apologies:
> 
> * “Natasha would appreciate a gun.”
> 
> ** “Natasha has enough guns. She’s been looking for good throwing knives though.”


End file.
